The leader of the band

Ashley is a pretty and sweet 2nd cousin of mine. Or, is she a 1st cousin once removed? She is the daughter of my 1st cousin Jennifer. Ashley has always had a love for all thing’s music. She is a guitar player, a mandolin player and plays the piano. Truth be known she could probably play anything she wanted to. And she sings! Did I say how good Ashley is at singing? She’s amazing!

Ashley loved her grandmother Joyce. Joyce was my dad’s sister, my aunt.  Ashley and my aunt Joyce were really kind of kindred spirits when it came to music.  My Aunt Joyce could sing and play a variety of instruments. 
 
Shortly before she passed away, I found out that my Aunt Joyce would sing at County Fairs while playing the mandolin or banjo back in her town area of Peoria, Illinois. During high school my Aunt Joyce entered many singing contests and was a prolific high school band member back in the late forties and early fifties.
 
One of cousin Ashley’s favorite songs, (mine too), is a song called The Leader of the Band. Dan Fogelberg wrote, performed and recorded this song in 1979 but felt it was too sentimental for the current album he was working on, so he didn't release it until 1981. His father, Lawrence Fogelberg, died the following year. The Leader of the Band, is a soulful and warm recollection of his father whom many called, the Leader of the Band. The senior Fogelberg had this nickname because for many years he was the high school Band teacher at Peoria-Woodruff High School in Peoria, Illinois. Additionally, during his career, Fogelberg lead the band programs at Pekin High School, and Bradley University. Thousands of students went through his band programs including my father, and his younger sister, my aunt Joyce (and Ashley’s grandmother).

In 2010, while having dinner in my aunt Joyce’s apartment in Virginia Beach, I was visiting with Ashley and discussing our common love for music.  My aunt Joyce was in the kitchen cleaning up after a wonderful meal. When the topic of music came up, for some reason that I don’t remember, the song, The Leader of the Band, was dropped. She swooned how much she loved that song. I told her, “I love that song too. And, I am going to tell you something that you probably don’t know!”  “What,” she asked with anticipation? I proceeded to explain the significance of Dan Fogelberg’s father being called the Leader of the band. I then told her that Dan Fogelberg’s father, the Leader of the Band, was her grandmother’s high school band teacher!
 
(Side-story of relevance), I knew my aunt Joyce played the Mandolin, and my cousin Jennifer recently told me that she also played piano (taught by our grandfather Shaner) and that Lawrence Fogelberg taught her the drums in high school and that’s what she played on his band. According to Jennifer, Mr. Fogelberg also taught her how to twirl a baton!
 
Back to my story - Ashley’s response was, “No, stop teasing me like that!” (as I am prone to do).  I assured her that as much as I love teasing her that this was in fact true, but she still didn’t believe me.  So, I stopped and hollered into the kitchen, “Aunt Joyce, would you come in here for a moment? Upon her arrival I asked, (without tipping my hand as to why I was asking), “Do you remember the name of your high school band teacher?
 
“My high school band teacher?” she repeated, with a look and tone of why in the world are you asking me that? “Yes, your high school band teacher. Do you remember his name?” She looked down, scrunched her face for a few seconds, and said, “Do you mean Mr. Fogelberg?
 
Cousin Ashley screamed with delight and almost rolled off the couch in disbelief!  One of her favorite songs was written about the protagonist in the story of the song, the Leader of the Band, and that man Larry Fogelberg, was Ashley’s grandmothers high school band teacher… The Leader of the Band!
 
I few years later, as I heard this song on my playlist while on a road trip, I was reminded of this wonderful family story.  I sent Ashley a message telling her I was thinking about her and asking her if she remembered this story?  Her reply, “Yes, it still blows my mind!”
 
Friends, this is why we tell family stories and pass the joy of “Life at Shutter Speed” down through the generations!
 
Here are the lyric’s (if you know this song, I’m sure you will be singing along as you read)
Leader of the Band
An only child alone and wild, a cabinet maker's son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift I know I never can repay

A quiet man of music denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once, but his music wouldn't wait
He earned his love through discipline, a thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band

My brother's lives were different for they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St Paul
And I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel
Living out this life I've chose and come to know so well

I thank you for the music and your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough
And papa, I don't think I said I love you near enough

The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band
I am a living legacy to the leader of the band
 
Writer/s: DAN FOGELBERG / Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC / Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
 
P.S. One of the cool things about Dan Fogelberg’s original rendition of this song is in the last 20 seconds of the song. The song concludes with part of a performance by the UCLA Band of the John Philip Sousa march "The Washington Post" arranged by Fogelberg's father.

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